AL: Although we are well into the third month of the new year, 2008, something special is always happening here in the International Ministry Headquarters of Joni and Friends. And with our broadcast host, Joni Eareckson Tada, looking at the calendar tells us that today marks the World Day of Prayer. Joni, I wonder, do you have any special things planned?
JONI: Well, we always take time at our ministry to gather together as a staff and pray… and I’ve heard that a lot of believers around the world who are gathering in their capital cities to join in prayer…
AL: and perhaps in Washington DC…
JONI: ... you know, speaking of prayer in our nation’s capital… I grew up near Washington DC and I remember when I was a kid, walking through the Lincoln Memorial, the Jefferson Memorial – whenever I went in Washington, I’d look up at those tall, gleaming monuments ... all that white marble, and I would think, God must live here.
AL: … and you discovered soon enough that Washington DC is not where God lives...
JONI: …which is all the more reason for us to pray for our nation’s capitol... Because if you and I do not cry out to God, the very monuments and memorials in Washington DC will cry out! In Luke 19, Jesus Himself said that if you and I keep quiet, the very rocks will cry out praises to God. And what prophetic words those are! You know so many of our nation’s monuments do have God’s name carved on them. Maybe the people of our country refuse to praise God, but the very marble in our nation’s capitol is calling out. I tell you the carved concrete is already shouting praises to God. The tallest, the highest, the greatest monuments of all testify to God’s greatness... even the Washington Monument.
AL: And that’s a fact. I learned recently that at the top of our nation’s most beautiful monument... at the top of the Washington Monument, there is the testimony to God’s greatness.... inscribed on the face of the point that looks to the east are these simple words carved in stone: Laus Deo. That literally means “Praise God.”
JONI: You know, I heard that, too and I never knew that as a kid… and I'm so blessed by that fact! I mean, think of it, carved on the top of the highest structure on the Washington Mall is the proclamation over all the city, “Praise God.” Wow! It’s like... those words stand tall above the noise and hurry, the rush and craziness of protesters, or politicians, or humanists and secularists and atheists, and 100 others who would seek to dismantle and deface the name of God, right?
AL: Exactly! Who would think that the words of Jesus, recorded in Luke 19, are having a fulfillment in our own time? You know, people may not be quick to praise God, but the stones are praising Him. A lot of carved marble in Washington DC is testifying to the greatness of God.
JONI: Oh, on this World Day of Prayer, and not just here in the United States, but all around this globe we plead to our great God and Savior that He would move in the hearts of the people of not only our nation but nations around the world do the same. Praise Him! After all, why should our Washington Monument have all the fun?
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